The Clinical Observation of Inflammation Theory for Depression: The Initiative of the Formosa Long COVID Multicenter Study (FOCuS)

Shu-Tsen Liu(Shu-Tsen Liu),Sheng-Che Lin(Sheng-Che Lin),Jane Pei-Chen Chang(Jane Pei-Chen Chang),Kai-Jie Yang(Kai-Jie Yang),Che-Sheng Chu(Che-Sheng Chu),Chia-Chun Yang(Chia-Chun Yang),Chih-Sung Liang( 대한정신약물학회 2023 CLINICAL PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY AND NEUROSCIENCE Vol.21 No.1

There is growing evidence that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is associated with increased risks of psychiatric sequelae. Depression, anxiety, cognitive impairments, sleep disturbance, and fatigue during and after the acute phase of COVID-19 are prevalent, long-lasting, and exerting negative consequences on well-being and imposing a huge burden on healthcare systems and society. This current review presented timely updates of clinical research findings, particularly focusing on the pathogenetic mechanisms underlying the neuropsychiatric sequelae, and identified potential key targets for developing effective treatment strategies for long COVID. In addition, we introduced the Formosa Long COVID Multicenter Study (FOCuS), which aims to apply the inflammation theory to the pathogenesis and the psychosocial and nutrition treatments of post-COVID depression and anxiety.

A Rapid and Simple Method for DNA Preparation of Magnaporthe oryzae from Single Rice Blast Lesions for PCR-Based Molecular Analysis

Liying Dong(Liying Dong),Shufang Liu(Shufang Liu),Jing Li(Jing Li),Didier Tharreau(Didier Tharreau ),Pei Liu(Pei Liu),Dayun Tao(Dayun Tao),Qinzhong Yang(Qinzhong Yang) 한국식물병리학회 2022 Plant Pathology Journal Vol.38 No.6

Rice blast is one of the most destructive diseases of rice worldwide, and the causative agent is the filamentous ascomycete Magnaporthe oryzae. With the successful cloning of more and more avirulence genes from M. oryzae, the direct extraction of M. oryzae genomic DNA from infected rice tissue would be useful alternative for rapid monitoring of changes of avirulence genes without isolation and cultivation of the pathogen. In this study, a fast, low-cost and reliable method for DNA preparation of M. oryzae from a small piece of infected single rice leaf or neck lesion was established. This single step method only required 10 min for DNA preparation and conventional chemical reagents commonly found in the laboratory. The AvrPik and AvrPi9 genes were successfully amplified with the prepared DNA. The expected DNA fragments from 570 bp to 1,139 bp could be amplified even three months after DNA preparation. This method was also suitable for DNA preparation from M. oryzae strains stored on the filter paper. All together these results indicate that the DNA preparation method established in this study is reliable, and could meet the basic needs for polymerase chain reaction-based analysis of M. oryzae.

A Rapid and Simple Method for DNA Preparation of Magnaporthe oryzae from Single Rice Blast Lesions for PCR-Based Molecular Analysis

Liying Dong(Liying Dong),Shufang Liu(Shufang Liu),Jing Li(Jing Li),Didier Tharreau(Didier Tharreau ),Pei Liu(Pei Liu),Dayun Tao(Dayun Tao),Qinzhong Yang(Qinzhong Yang) 한국식물병리학회 2023 Plant Pathology Journal Vol.39 No.2

Elastography for Breast Cancer Diagnosis: a Useful Tool for Small and BI-RADS 4 Lesions

Liu, Xue-Jing,Zhu, Ying,Liu, Pei-Fang,Xu, Yi-Lin Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.24

The present study aimed at evaluating and comparing the diagnostic performance of B-mode ultrasound (US), elastography score (ES), and strain ratio (SR) for the differentiation of breast lesions. This retrospective study enrolled 431 lesions from 417 in-hospital patients. All patients were examined with both conventional ultrasound and elastography. Two experienced radiologists reviewed ultrasound and elasticity images. The histopathologic result obtained from ultrasound-guided core biopsy or operation excisions were used as the reference standard. Pathologic examination revealed 276 malignant lesions (64%) and 155 benign lesions (36%). A cut-off point of 4.15 (area under the curve, 0.891) allowed significant differentiation of malignant and benign lesions. ROC (receiver-operating characteristic) curves showed a higher value for combination of B-mode ultrasound and elastography for the diagnosis of breast lesions. Conventional ultrasound combined elastography showed high sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy for group II lesions (10mm<lesion diameter ${\leq}20mm$). Elastography combined with conventional ultrasound show high specificity and accuracy for differentiation of benign and malignant breast lesions. Elastography is particularly important for the diagnosis of BI-RADS 4 and small breast lesions.

Analysis of Mammographic Breast Density in a Group of Screening Chinese Women and Breast Cancer Patients

Liu, Jing,Liu, Pei-Fang,Li, Jun-Nan,Qing, Chun,Ji, Yu,Hao, Xi-Shan,Zhang, Xue-Ning Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.15

Background: A dense breast not only reduces the sensitivity of mammography but also is a moderate independent risk factor for breast cancer. The percentage of Western women with fat breast tissue is higher aged 40 years or older. To a certain extent, mammography as a first choice of screening imaging method for Western women of this group is reasonable. Hitherto, the frequency and age distribution of mammographic breast density patterns among Chinese women had not been characterized. The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency and age distribution of mammographic breast density patterns among a group of Chinese screening women and breast cancer patients in order to provide useful information for age-specific guidelines for breast cancer screening in Chinese women. Methods: A retrospective review of a total of 3,394 screening women between August and December 2009 and 2,527 breast cancer patients between July 2011 and June 2012 was conducted. Descriptive analyses were used to examine the association between age and breast density. The significance of differences of breast density between the screening women and the breast cancer patients was examined using nonparametric tests. Results: There was a significant inverse relationship between age and breast density overall (r=-0.37, p< 0.01). Breast density of the breast cancer patients in the subgroups of 40-49 years old was greater compared with that of the screening women, the same in those aged 50-54 years and in those 55 years old or older, less than in the screening group. Conclusions: With regard to the Chinese women younger than 55 years old, the diagnostic efficiency of breast cancer screening imaging examinations may be potentially improved by combining screening mammography with ultrasound.

A reliability-based fragility assessment method for seismic pounding between nonlinear buildings

Pei Liu,Hai-Xin Zhu,Peng-Peng Fan,Wei Guo Yang 국제구조공학회 2021 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.77 No.1

Existing methods to estimate the probability of seismic pounding occurrence of adjacent buildings do not account for nonlinear behavior or only apply to simple lumped mass systems. The present study proposes an efficient method based on subset simulation for fragility and risk assessment of seismic pounding occurrence between nonlinear adjacent buildings neglecting pounding effects with application to finite element models. The proposed method is first applied to adjacent buildings modeled as elastoplastic systems with substantially different dynamic properties for different structural parameters. Seismic pounding fragility and risk of adjacent frame structures with different floor levels is then assessed, paying special attention to modeling the non-linear material behavior in finite element models. Difference in natural periods and impact location are identified to affect the pounding fragility simultaneously. The reliability levels of the minimum code-specified separation distances are also determined. In addition, the incremental dynamic analysis method is extended to assess seismic pounding fragility of the adjacent frame structures, resulting in higher fragility estimates for separation distances larger than the minimum code-specified ones in comparison with the proposed method.

Glucocorticoid-induced expansion of classical monocytes contributes to bone loss

Liu Pei,Gao Youshui,Luo Pengbo,Yu Hongping,Guo Shang,Liu Fuyun,Gao Junjie,Xu Jianzhong,Wang Shengdian,Zhang Changqing 생화학분자생물학회 2022 Experimental and molecular medicine Vol.54 No.-

Classical monocytes are commonly involved in the innate inflammatory response and are the progenitors of osteoclasts. Excess endogenous glucocorticoids (GCs) can increase the levels of classical monocytes in blood and bone marrow. The role of this cell population in high-dose exogenous GC-induced osteoporosis (GIOP) remains to be elucidated. In this study, GIOP was established in rats and mice by daily methylprednisolone injection, and monocyte subsets were analyzed by flow cytometry. We demonstrated that classical monocytes accumulate in bone marrow during GIOP. Similarly, the monocyte proportion among bone marrow nucleated cells was also increased in patients with steroid treatment history. We sorted classical monocytes and analyzed their transcriptional profile in response to GCs by RNA sequencing. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis showed that classical monocytes isolated from GC-treated rats exhibited osteoclast differentiation potential. Deletion of classical monocytes by clodronate liposome treatment prevented GIOP via inhibition of osteoclastogenesis and restoration of CD31HiendomucinHi vessels. Regarding the molecular mechanism, classical monocytes express high levels of glucocorticoid receptors. In vitro treatment with GCs increased both the percentage and absolute number of monocytes and promoted their proliferation. In summary, classical monocytes mediated GC-induced bone loss and are a potential target for therapeutic intervention in GIOP treatment.

Dynamic reliability of structures: the example of multi-grid composite walls

Liu, Pei,Yaoa, Qian-Feng Techno-Press 2010 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.36 No.4

Based on damage accumulation of multi-grid composite walls, a method of dynamic reliability estimations is proposed. The multi-grid composite wall is composed of edge frame beam, edge frame columns, grid beams, grid columns and filling blocks. The equations including stiffness, shear forces at filling blocks cracking and multi-grid composite walls yielding, ultimate displacement, and damage index are obtained through tests of 13 multi-grid composite wall specimens. Employing these equations in reliability calculations, procedures of dynamic reliability estimations based on damage accumulation of multi-grid composite walls subjected to random earthquake excitations are proposed. Finally the proposed method is applied to the typical composite wall specimen subjected to random earthquake excitations which can be specified by a finite number of input random variables. The dynamic reliability estimates, when filling blocks crack under earthquakes corresponding to 63% exceedance in 50 years and when the composite wall reach limit state under earthquakes corresponding to 2-3% exceedance in 50 years, are obtained using the proposed method by taking damage indexes as thresholds. The results from the proposed method which show good agreement with those from Monte-Carlo simulations demonstrate the proposed method is effective.

Seismic fragility analysis of sliding artifacts in nonlinear artifact-showcase-museum systems

Pei Liu,Zhi-Hao Li,Wei-Guo Yang 국제구조공학회 2021 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.78 No.3

Motivated by the demand of seismic protection of museum collections and development of performance-based seismic design guidelines, this paper investigates the seismic fragility of sliding artifacts based on incremental dynamic analysis and three-dimensional finite element model of the artifact-showcase-museum system considering nonlinear behavior of the structure and contact interfaces. Different intensity measures (IMs) for seismic fragility assessment of sliding artifacts are compared. The fragility curves of the sliding artifacts in both freestanding and restrained showcases placed on different floors of a four-story reinforced concrete frame structure are developed. The seismic sliding fragility of the artifacts within a real-world museum subjected to bi-directional horizontal ground motions is also assessed using the proposed IM and engineering demand parameter. Results show that the peak floor acceleration including only values initiating sliding is an efficient IM. Moreover, the sliding fragility estimate for the artifact in the restrained showcase increases as the floor level goes higher, while it may not be true in the freestanding showcase. Furthermore, the artifact is more prone to sliding failure in the restrained showcase than the freestanding showcase. In addition, the artifact has slightly worse sliding performance subjected to bi-directional motions than major-component motions.

Time Trends of Esophageal Cancer Mortality in Linzhou City During the Period 1988-2010 and a Bayesian Approach Projection for 2020

Liu, Shu-Zheng,Zhang, Fang,Quan, Pei-Liang,Lu, Jian-Bang,Liu, Zhi-Cai,Sun, Xi-Bin Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2012 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.13 No.9

In recent decades, decreasing trends in esophageal cancer mortality have been observed across China. We here describe esophageal cancer mortality trends in Linzhou city, a high-incidence region of esophageal cancer in China, during 1988-2010 and make a esophageal cancer mortality projection in the period 2011-2020 using a Bayesian approach. Age standardized mortality rates were estimated by direct standardization to the World population structure in 1985. A Bayesian age-period-cohort (BAPC) analysis was carried out in order to investigate the effect of the age, period and birth cohort on esophageal cancer mortality in Linzhou during 1988-2010 and to estimate future trends for the period 2011-2020. Age-adjusted rates for men and women decreased from 1988 to 2005 and changed little thereafter. Risk increased from 30 years of age until the very elderly. Period effects showed little variation in risk throughout 1988-2010. In contrast, a cohort effect showed risk decreased greatly in later cohorts. Forecasting, based on BAPC modeling, resulted in a increasing burden of mortality and a decreasing age standardized mortality rate of esophageal cancer in Linzhou city. The decrease of esophageal cancer mortality risk since the 1930 cohort could be attributable to the improvements of socialeconomic environment and lifestyle. The standardized mortality rates of esophageal cancer should decrease continually. The effect of aging on the population could explain the increase in esophageal mortality projected for 2020.